The Black family photograph album

CTL-E-1324 · Work · other · 1900–2026

PROVISIONAL evidence grade of this record

Mantelpiece portraits, albums, and loose prints kept by grandmothers and families as the sacred archive of everyday Black life.

Notes

Merged into canonical KG 2026-10-03 from LIFE-001; source entity IDs: CTL-DR-LIFE-001:CTL-LIFE-E-061; source research type(s): object.

Sources

LaTosha Bennett, 'The Visionary Eye: Deborah Willis and the Recovery of Black Light' (Medium, Feb 2026)
1world1family.me DDFR.TV feature on Deborah Willis (n.d.) (primary source)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Willis_(artist); Harvard Gazette (April 2026)

Record CTL-E-1324 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: PROVISIONAL · 3 sources (1 primary) · CTL research: LIFE-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite this record

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “The Black family photograph album (CTL-E-1324),” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, October 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1324/

Chicago: CultureTechLens. “The Black family photograph album (CTL-E-1324).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1324/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). The Black family photograph album (CTL-E-1324) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1324/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “The Black family photograph album (CTL-E-1324).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1324/

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From the Archive

The archive in pictures

Black Chicago’s musical record, kept frame by frame. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Negro swinging his girl on roller skates. Savoy Ballroom, Chicago, Illinois, ChicagoPhoto: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Girl listening to music at dance. Chicago, Illinois, ChicagoPhoto: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

The band at the Savoy Ballroom. Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

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